The status of digital literacy among young people in Zambia

Recently, a survey covering issues digital citizenship and safety
was carried out by UNICEF with 525 pupils across Zambia. As part
of the survey, young people had to complete a questionnaire that
asked how they use internet and communication tools, what they
use them for, how frequently they use them, and whether they have
had any negative experiences using them.

While carrying out the survey I took time to interview the pupils
on their personal experiences with ICTs, and the risks and
opportunities they've encountered. The following are highlights
of what I learnt while talking to the young people.

GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFERENCE

The survey was done in public schools, in five provinces, in both
urban and rural areas. I discovered that most pupils from rural
areas had very little knowledge on the use of phones, internet
and computers .In urban schools most pupils, especially the boys
compared to girls, had knowledge on ICTs and knew how to protect
themselves online like changing their privacy settings or putting
in place passwords to protect themselves.

In both urban and rural areas most pupils had never thought to
use the internet to read the news, or research on an assignment
for school. The most common activities that pupils do are
listening to music, play phone games and if they have internet
settings on their phones, the site they tend to visit with the
most frequency is Facebook. There were also complaints from the
school authorities that the main problem they had with their
pupils owning mobile phones and going online was that they would
catch some of the pupils, especially boys, visiting porn sites on
their mobile phone and that it was quite common with pupils
between the ages of 14 and 18.

Most girls especially in rural areas had no interest in using
ICTs or learning how to use the internet or social media. The
only entertainment they enjoy to do on the phone is listening to
music, sending text messages and making calls. “I have a phone
but I am not connected to the internet because I have no interest
in joining Facebook, but I enjoy listening to music on my phone”
was an answer given to me by one of the girls taking part in the
survey when I asked why most girls were not on Facebook or other
social media.

INTERNET ACCESS

Coming from a home where my little sister knew how to operate a
phone and a computer to make calls, text, play games and research
her homework online, and even change a few settings on the phone
at the age of 10, being exposed to situations where children at
the peak of their teens had no idea on how to use a phone or had
no interest in communication tools was quite astounding.

Many of the pupils I spoke to confessed that they had little
knowledge on the use of internet communication tools like social
media because of their lack of access to the internet and
computers. Very few schools own computers and pretty much none of
the schools I visited had any record of internet access.

Many of the phone models that have internet access are still very
expensive, so a lot of the pupils own phones that do not have
internet access. Digital literacy is still trying to find its way
in Zambia; and where young people have means they often lack the
knowledge on how to use ICTs to their advantage. In some areas
like rural public schools they lack both the knowledge and the
means to explore the opportunities in using ICTs. The government
of Zambia is currently looking into this issue and trying to
donate computers to a number of public schools to promote ICT use
among young people in Zambia.

ONLINE OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS

It was also interesting to find out that most of the pupils had
great interest in learning about the opportunities of using ICTs
in their lives. The pupils were willing to embrace the technology
advancement and want to move with time when it comes to ICTs.
Most of them where interested to learn of the dangers found
online and wanted to know how they can protect themselves.

Most pupils who use the internet confessed that they have
received scam messages of someone asking them for money online or
pretending to want to date them and later bothering them for
money. Most of them ignored such messages but a few said they had
started communicating with the random stranger until they were
asked for money – at which point they would block the person.

A story was told to me by a young girl aged 15 in Chipata about
how her elder brother lost K68 million (apx. 13,000 USD) from an
online scan – and this is a fairly commonplace occurrence here in
Zambia. Both young and elderly people are being affected by this
each day. John (not his real name) received a message on Facebook
from a girl in Rwanda who claimed that she had inherited a large
sum of money from her dead uncle who was in politics. She told
John that her uncle was being looked for by the government and
she and her family had been in hiding and could not access the
money from their country because they would be killed or
arrested. She said that all John needed to do was give her his
bank account details and she would send him her money which they
would split in half.

John decided to do that, and later that same day he realized that
his money in his account was gone. When he went to the bank he
was told that his bank statement showed that he had withdrawn his
money using a visa card early that day – and until this day the
money has not been retrieved. The young girl was not able to
write her Grade 12 exams this year but will have to postpone her
exams to next year because there was no money to pay for her
tuition and exam fees in time.

CONCLUSION

The Digital Citizenship and Safety survey has made me realize how
much young people in Zambia lack information concerning both the
opportunities and risks involved in using ICTs. There is a lot
that needs to be done especially on addressing the issue of
online safety, the use of internet and communication tools for
productive things; because most of our youths do not understand
how bridging the ICT gap can help fix a lot of problems to do
with access of information and improving the economy. There is
need for girl children especially to be encouraged to involve
themselves with ICTs; to want to learn more; and to have the
interest to embrace internet and communication tools.